Long, Long Way from Home
by Pikibear
Summary: Quinn is shipped off to a special clinic in Maryville, Tennessee to deal with her depression and her eating disorder. There, she meets Rachel, who is also a patient at the clinic, kick starting a journey to remember for both girls. Faberry and adult Brittana.
1. Chapter 1

When I wake up, my room is cold. Although it's almost noon, there is still no light coming from anywhere. I hear my brother, who just came back from college for a couple of weeks, walk down the stairs. My older sister is arriving tomorrow because she went on a trip to New York with her new friends, which she met this year when she started college.

I got caught up on thinking about the times when everything was easy. This lovely family adopted me when I was 5 years old. I was living with them for a year before they filled out the papers. I don't really know anything about my parents — only that they were drug dealers and that I was a mistake. The day my birth mom had brought me to the shelter, my father had died in a shooting.

But I'm here now, living with a nice and caring family who even respects the fact that I sometimes wish to be left alone.

I stopped eating like a normal person ages ago. One day during the time in which I ate nothing but a small piece of dry toast, my dad came into my room and asked me if I would join him and my mom downstairs at the table for dinner. I freaked out and screamed at my dad, but he wouldn't leave me alone until I smashed my hand into my huge mirror and broke it into thousand of little pieces. Since that day, my parents have not come up to my room to talk to me. If I had something to say, I would just go up to them and initiate the talking myself. Sometimes my mom puts little post-it notes on my door so I can read them, which can still be considered as some form of communication between the two of us.

At the moment I don't eat anything anymore. I drink three little bottles of cold water that I would get out of the fridge in the kitchen.

Today I just lay in my bed like I do every day. I had just gotten my second bottle of water for the day. I can feel my body getting even more tired from the day I decided to stop eating. My eyes are always red and my face is itchy from all the crying. Most days I just lie curled up in a ball and sleep.

When I wake up again there's no one in the house. My parents are probably eating out with my brother. I walk down the stairs into the kitchen to the fridge to get my last bottle of water for the day. I notice that strangely, there is only one bottle left. Maybe they went to the grocery store to buy some new ones, but anyway I take the bottle and look around the kitchen before deciding that there was nothing interesting before heading back upstairs.

I sat down on my desk in the dark room to find a piece of paper to write a message to my mom:

'Mom, there aren't any bottles of water in the kitchen, could you please buy new ones for me?

I post the paper on my door and lock it. Even though I know that my parents have a key to my door, I still feel safer when it is locked.

I put the fresh laundry my mom put in front of my door into my closet and sit down on my bed.

I know that it is important for my body to drink enough water, so I take small sips 'till the bottle is empty. I start to feel kind of dizzy, but I don't know why. I don't think about anything, I just want to fall asleep, which doesn't take long.

XXX

Judy, Russell and Flo were sitting in a nice restaurant in Lima. They had just ordered dessert when Russell's iPad lit up, displaying a new message.

'The fridge was opened'

"Why do you get a message when somebody opens the fridge?" Flo asked.

"It's a long story, Flo. I'll tell you tonight. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?" Russell asked as their chocolate sundaes were placed in front of them.

"Yes I do. Why? Is there something going on?" Flo asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

"Well I would cancel all your plans for this week just to be safe," Russell replied.

"Dad, you're scaring me. What's going on?"

The iPad blinked again.

'Door closed'

"Ok, this is crazy! Are you stalking somebody?"

"No, finish your dessert, we have to go soon. I will tell you everything you need to know in the car," Russell said as he asked for the bill.

The three of them quickly finished eating and hopped onto the car. Russell started the engine and drove down the main street.

"So can you explain everything to me now?" Flo asked, who didn't even bother being patient anymore.

"Well Quinn has always had some problems. She just didn't show them to anyone. This summer when your sister went away to college, Quinn just felt alone, you know? We knew that she didn't have many friends, so we weren't surprised when she spent more time in her room."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Flo asked angrily.

"Will you let me finish?"

"Yes, sorry," Flo said as he looked down at the ground, a little ashamed that he didn't' let his dad finish speaking.

"We also noticed that she would only come down and eat one meal a day with us. Soon, that turned into once every couple of days per week. At one point, she didn't even show up at the table. She got skinnier and that was not nice to look at, at all. One day, I walked into her room and asked her nicely if she would please come and at least sit with us at the table for dinner. She completely freaked out on me and even broke her mirror. From that day on, I don't initiate the talking. It's only when she wanted something that she came to us." Russell sighed before taking a deep breath.

"The next day, I searched online for a couple of tiny cameras and some movement sensors, which I put all around the house, including Quinn's room when she was off at school. This is why we know she stopped eating altogether three weeks ago, and only drinks a couple of bottles of water a day. I talked to your mom about what we should do, and we did some research on the different options we could use to help Quinn get better. We found a new clinic in Tennessee and contacted them. At that time though, they didn't have any room, but we didn't give up and kept talking to them. We even sent them a couple of videos from the cameras just to see if they could give us any advice. Three days ago though, they called and told us some of their patients went home and that there was room available for Quinn. They told us that in order for us to get her there, we would have to make her sleep so that there would be no resistance."

"So you drugged her?" Flo yelled. He couldn't believe what his parents had done to his little sister.

"Yes we did. It was in the last bottle of water that she drank," Russell answered. "Judy can you check to see if she's asleep?"

Judy took the iPad out of her bag and opened the program, which would allow her to see all the cameras that they had installed around the house.

"She's been asleep for the past ten minutes, we should hurry up."

"Your mom and I would appreciate it if you came along with us. We'll b staying in a hotel a town away in case there are any problems," Russell said as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the driveway.

"I suggest that you pack a small bag with enough stuff to last you for a week. We'll leave in 15 minutes," Judy said in a calm voice. She really wanted her daughter to get better and hoped that this clinic would be able to help her.

They checked one last time to see if Quinn was really asleep before opening the door to the younger blonde's room. Judy took a backpack from the closet and started stuffing clothes inside, making sure to put Quinn's laptop and a couple of books in as well.

Flo was downstairs in 10 minutes and helped Russell put all the bags in the trunk of the car.

"Would it be ok if we lay her on your lap?" Russell asked.

"Sure. I'm going sit in the car so you can bring her to me. Keep a blanket wrapped around her, she's going to get cold without it," Flo replied, waiting for his parents and his little sister.

He was shocked when Russell placed Quinn on top of him because she was so light and didn't have any color on her face. He gently brushed her hair from her face and fell asleep as well. 5 hours later, he woke up from his mother's shaking because they had finally arrived at their destination, the special clinic in Maryville.


	2. Chapter 2

I feel like somebody is moving my body, but maybe I'm just dreaming. I wake up shortly and seem to think that my dream had probably become reality. I'm in a room that's really bright, which confuses me, because my room is dark. Where am I? I slowly look around and see that I'm on something that looks like a hospital bed, but way too comfortable to be one. The room has a closet and a desk. There are also two doors, with on next to the window, most likely an en-suite. The other door on the side was probably a normal one.

I have absolutely no idea where I am. When I look to the other side, I see a person sitting on the couch. It is a woman with long straight black hair and really tan skin. She's currently looking outside the window and probably didn't notice that I woke up. I see a clock on one of the walls that reads 11am. I never sleep that long. I remember that I had locked my door. Did my parents come into my room when I passed out? How did they even know that I was asleep? There were so many questions going through my head, but the most important one was why there was a woman who I don't even know sitting in the room where I was sleeping? I figured that I should probably make some noise so that she notices that I woke up. I gently knock my hand against the side of the bed, immediately drawing her attention.

"Hello sweetie, it's nice to see that you're awake," the woman said in a caring and comfortable voice, which immediately calmed me down.

"Hi," I replied. "Why am I here?"

"Well why do you think that you are?" the woman asked, getting up so that she could sit next to me on the side of the bed.

"I don't know," I said. "Can't you just tell me?" I was a little helpless and didn't realize that tears had started running down my cheeks.

"Well how about, I start with introducing myself?" I nodded and she began speaking again. "I'm Dr. Lopez, but you can call me Santana or whatever you want, but please ask me before you start calling me by some crazy nickname you make up for me." That made me smile. She's a doctor and she didn't even look as serious as the one I had met in the hospital when I was 7 years old and broke my arm.

"Do you have any questions?" Dr. Lopez asked. "Why don't you tell me your name?"

"My name is Quinn and I'm 13 years old. Don't you have a file where you can read all of that information?"

"I do have a file, but you had 2 names on there, and I wasn't really sure about which one to call you by. I also like to talk to my patients personally instead of reading a file on them, because I can learn a lot more about them that way." The doctor paused before speaking again. "I did read your file, so I'm informed about your medical conditions. You see, if I didn't ask you which name you prefer to go by, how would you like it if everybody called you Lucy instead of Quinn?"

"I wouldn't like that," I answered. "So can you tell me why I'm here now?"

"Let me ask you again. Why do you think you're here?" Dr. Lopez asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "Because my parents think that I'm crazy?"

"Never say that again, sweetie, do you understand me? And no, you aren't here because you're crazy, you're here because your parents are really worried about you. And if I had a say in it, you would have been here a long time ago."

"What do you mean? You don't even know me!" I yelled.

"Your parents were so worried about you that they called us quite a while back to tell us about you. At that time though, we couldn't do anything about it, because we didn't have any free rooms or beds. We still wanted to help you though. That's why we made suggestions on how they could help monitor you. Please don't get mad if you want to hear more about it," Dr. Lopez said.

I just nodded, because Dr. Lopez had a really worried look on her face.

"We told them to keep an eye on you all the time. But when your dad told us about how you had smashed a mirror, we suggested your parents to install some cameras and sensors around the house so they could keep us updated with whatever happened."

"They had cameras in my room? I didn't even see them!" I said.

"Yes there was. Do you want to know how you got here, Quinn?" Dr. Lopez asked.

I nodded, but braced myself for something that wouldn't really sound appealing.

"This week some people were released, so we told your parents to get you here really fast."

"Was that why I felt really dizzy when I drank my last bottle of water?" I asked.

"Yes. In the bottles, there were things in it that would make you sleep and get you here without protest. Everyone knows that nobody wants to come here at will."

We both sat in silence for a while before Dr. Lopez's phone started ringing. She took it out of her pocket and checked who was calling. When she saw the name on the caller ID, a smile immediately appeared on her face. She looked at me, hesitating to ponder whether or not she should take the call while she was with me. I nodded at her and said "I don't mind, you can take it if you want to." The doctor gave me a smile in thanks and walked towards the window.

_"Hey B, is something wrong?"_

I began to wonder who the doctor was talking to. Since the room was silent except for Dr. Lopez who was talking on her phone, I was able to pick up bits of the conversation going on.

"_Hi San! No, I'm just a little bored because I don't have any patients anymore, which makes me sad."_

_"Don't be sad, B."_

Since the doctor was using a nickname and talking to the person on the other line in an even softer voice than she uses with me, I concluded that she must be really close to the person she was talking to.

_'When are you coming home?'_

_"You know how I talked to you about this little girl, B?"_

She talked to that person about me! I didn't like that. Why do these people here talk so much, about everything … especially about me? I don't even know where I am. I could be in another country right now … I hope not though.

_'Yeah. The one with the cameras?'_

_"She arrived last night. You know the rules. I'm not supposed to leave her alone in the beginning"_

What? She's not going to leave me be. Where am I?

"_Ah, so she's a newbie. Is she an A patient?"_

_"Yes, she's an A. Why don't go home and take out 2 slices of cake from the freezer for me. If you could bring the big black pack where my laptop is and come here, that would be great!"_

So she lives with that person. Maybe it's her husband. I had a feeling that it wasn't though.

"_Am I even allowed to visit when it's your first day with her?" _

_"Maybe you come when she's sleeping. If she's ok with it, you might be able to meet her in person. I'll check to see if there are any patients that are expected that you might take. We have to make __sure that you and the patients are a match, otherwise things won't go well."_

This person is coming here! I'd like to meet him or her, but I'm also a little afraid to. I've never really had a lot of friends because they didn't think I was normal like them. Now, I absolutely cannot believe that someone actually wants to meet me.

"_Really? That's awesome! Thanks, San. You know me so well."_

_"I think I should know my lovely wifey well, after all, you did agree to marry me," Dr. Lopez said in a lower volume. _

Wait, what did she just say? I couldn't really hear her, but at the same time, it probably wasn't the best idea to try to overhear a private conversation. I should just try to concentrate on other things, like acquainted with my new environment.

"_Yeah, you should." _

Santana could just picture the smile on Brittany's face. "_Mhm … do you have your ring?"_

_"No, it's on the dresser in the bedroom. Do you want me to bring it so you can wear yours too? Wait, are you going to tell her or are you just going to wait 'till she asks?" _

_"I'll just let her ask questions. She's really good at it anyways." _

I look around the room for a couple of minutes before deciding to just stare at the ceiling. I see a silver thing where a bag is hanging from there that is directly connected to me through a tube. I bring my hands up to feel where the end of the tube goes. Eventually, my hands rest on top of my nose. Wait a minute, I think for a second, before starting to scream loudly.

Santana immediately whirls around to look at me, but my eyes can't see anything anymore, since they're now blurred by the tears streaming down my face.

"_San, what's going on?"_

_"I think she just found out that she gets food into her body through her nose. I have to go now. I promise that I'll call you later though. Love you, B,"_ Santana said, hanging up, and walking briskly back to me.

Dr. Lopez took me into her arms and whispered calming words softly into my ear. It takes me a while to calm down, but it does happen eventually.


	3. Chapter 3

My face feels itchy and dry, probably from all the crying and freaking out that I've been doing. I'm calm enough now so I open my eyes slowly, looking at the familiar ceiling, but hearing two voices quietly talking to one another. One was obviously coming from Dr. Lopez, but the other one, I've never heard of until today.

I look at the clock again and it's now half past 5. How I'm sleeping so long is still a mystery to me, since I'm used to barely sleeping at all. Suddenly, the voices stop and I look in the direction from where they were coming from. Two people were sitting on the couch by the window looking at a laptop. One of them was Dr. Lopez, while the other woman had really light skin and long blonde hair. They looked like they were having fun, but were being serious at the same time, which was quite a peculiar sight to me. Since I didn't really know what to do, I decided to make some noise by knocking my hand against the bed again.

"Hey sweetie, are you ok now?" Dr. Lopez asked with a caring voice.

"Yes, thank you. And who are you?" I asked the blonde woman directly.

Said woman stood up and walked over to my bed, gently sitting down beside me.

"Hi, I'm Brittany, but most people call me Britt. What's your name?"

"Quinn," I said, holding my hand out for her to shake.

"Why don't you have a formal name like Dr. Lopez does?" I curious asked.

"Oh I do, but it would be confusing for everybody if they called me by my formal name. Besides, that just makes her older, while I sound younger," Brittany joked.

I simply nodded, but didn't really know why she said it would be confusing for people to call her by her formal name. For the time being though, I just ignored that detail.

"Hey Britt, come here. I think I found somebody for you," Dr. Lopez said.

"Who is it?" Brittany asked.

"I'm not 100% sure where they're coming from, but I know that the two girls are due here really soon. There is a little girl whose parents talked to Ashley. They also have another girl who just turned 14 with them."

"What patient type are they?" Brittany asked.

"I think the older one is going to be classified as a B, which would be perfect for you. The little one is either going to be a D or an E. I'm still not too sure about her," Santana replied.

"Can I see the file? What if I can't handle it," Brittany said with a worried look.

Why wouldn't she be able handle the new patient? Isn't she a doctor too? I thought doctors were capable of handling everything.

"Here you go," Dr. Lopez said, handing the laptop over to Brittany after a couple of clicks.

"I believe in you, Britt. But I don't want to force you into something you're not comfortable with. I don't think you'll be able to handle the little one, but do you still want the older one? Why don't I make a quick call and ask if anybody has called dibs on her before you make a decision. Don't rush, ok?"

The blonde nodded, signaling for Dr. Lopez to make the call.

_"Hello, this is Dr. Lopez calling. I noticed that there is a patient who is arriving soon after her dance competition, which is in North Carolina. I just wanted to ask if the older girl has ever consulted a doctor before." _

I don't really understand what Dr. Lopez is talking about, but I'm quite interested in what I'm overhearing from the phone call.

_"I asked about the older one! I already knew the little girl had one," Dr. Lopez said in an angry tone. "Can you give me a call once they arrive?"_

It was quite frustrating that I couldn't hear what the person on the other line was saying, but at the same time, I was already kind of overstepping my boundaries by invading other people's privacy.

_"I know, but Brittany doesn't have any patients at the moment because they were all sent home this week. We looked over her file and thought they'd be a perfect match." _

I could tell that Dr. Lopez was getting annoyed, since she was pinching her nose while talking.

"_Yes she's with me. That's exactly why you're going to call me when she gets here!"_

And with that, the conversation on the phone ended.

"You didn't have to be so mean, San," Brittany said.

"I know, but if I didn't you'd either have no patients or only get an E because they're to dumb to look at the files closely. I know that you like the A or B patients more because you know exactly how to take care of them."

I wonder how they can be so close. Perhaps I should just ask them about the relationship between the two. I looked up and realized that they weren't paying any attention to me, so I knocked my hand against the bed to make some noise.

"What is it?" Dr. Lopez snapped.

I was so shocked at the way she spoke to me that I immediately curled my body into a ball so that I faced the wall, feeling tears run down my face.

"San, what did you do? Look at the poor girl, she's probably afraid of you now," Brittany scolded the Latina.

I heard somebody stand up and heels clicking on the floor. The bed dipped, supporting the weight of the person who had just sat down. They started rubbing small circles on my back, waiting for me to calm down.

After my tears stopped, I took a couple of deep breaths before turning around to look at the person, expected it to be Brittany. To my surprise, it was Dr. Lopez with a sad expression looking down at me, waiting for me to give her a chance to talk to me again. I looked her deep in the eyes and waited for her to speak.

"I'm so sorry, Quinn. I didn't mean that, I was just in my own world. I'm sorry I snapped at you."

I looked at her facial expressions and I could tell that she was being genuine and meant every word that she said, so I decided to let the matter drop, and think of it as though it never happened.

"If you want to have another doctor now, I can go and find somebody else for you," Dr. Lopez said with a sad smile.

"No, I really like you," I replied, "please stay."

Doctor Lopez took me into her arms and held me in them for a long time, making me feel happy again. The both of us didn't even notice Brittany, who was sitting on the couch taking pictures of us.


	4. Chapter 4

I was still lying in bed with Dr. Lopez beside me as her phone started to ring.

It was still lying on the couch, where she and Brittany had sat before, so she just looked up and asked Brittany to take it.

_"Hello, this is Brittany. Who's calling?"_

I didn't really want to know who she was talking, but I did want to know about the girl that was around my age who was going to be arriving soon.

_"Yes, she called for me. Did they just come in?"_

_"Ok, I can come down if you want to. I can either go down and meet her, or you can bring her to her room, which we will be meeting in." _

_"Yes, we're in house A." _

Now I was starting to get curious. What was house A anyways? Is there more than 1 house? I should probably ask Dr. Lopez once this phone call is over.

"San which room is this?"

"San is in room 26. Are there any free here?"

"Ok, just page me when and where I should go. Thanks, bye."

"So did you get her?" Dr. Lopez asked Brittany.

"I think so, but I'll probably have to go soon though," Brittany replied.

"That's ok. We won't be home for a couple of days anyways. Is there anything in the fridge?"

"Not much, just some eggs and milk," Brittany answered.

They live together? I absolutely have to ask Dr. Lopez to confirm this.

"That's not a problem. It isn't going to go bad soon anyways."

I heard sounds that I never heard before and sat up immediately. Brittany and Santana were both standing up.

"Which room is she going to be in?" Dr. Lopez asked.

"28," Brittany replied with a smirk.

I later found out that room 28 was the room that was right next to mine.

"See you later, wifey," Brittany said, giving Dr. Lopez a peck on the lips.

I looked at Dr. Lopez, who didn't say anything. My line of sight then went down to where her hand was. There was a nice ring with a couple of small diamonds on it. It was simple, but still very beautiful.

Dr. Lopez looked at me, and then sat down on my bed again.

"You know, we've been married for 6 years" she said.

"Wow, that's a very long time." I kept smiling at her. "Is that why she goes by her first name."

"Yes, but even if we didn't have the same last name, she would still go by her first name and I by my last, simply because she's just really casual like that."

She paused before speaking again. "You don't have a problem with me being married to a woman, right?"

I was a little surprised by that question, but answered, "No, I don't have a problem with it. I was raised in quite a conservative family, but I have my own view."

I was happy for her. I mean, I still don't really know what I'm doing here, or why Dr. Lopez is with me, but I absolutely have no problem with it. I was starting to get sleepy again, so I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the silence.

XXX

It was almost a year ago, when I was walking down the hallway from my school. I had stayed after just to do a little practice on my own. As I finished and wnet ouside to call my mom so that she could pick me up, I heard laughter and people talking to each other. I started to walk slower and stopped in front of the odor so I could hear everything, but would remain unseen.

"Did you see that blond girl? She's so fat and ugly and didn't even get any of the moves right." "

"You're talking about the girl with the pigtails and the baby blue leotard right?" another voice asked.

"I think her parents just spoil her so she doesn't think that she's ugly."

"She doesn't even have talent. Even my cat could dance better!" one of the girls said, eliciting laughter from everyone.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. I ran down to the parking lot where I always waited for my mom or sister to pick me up. Once I saw the familiar red car, I jumped into the back seat and didn't say anything. Once we got back to our house, I ran into my room and locked the door. I lay in my bed and pulled the blanket over my head, crying myself to sleep.

XXX

I suddenly felt someone shaking me and shot up in the bed. It was Dr. Lopez, who held me and started rubbing small circles on my back. I couldn't stop crying from the dream that relived my memories. I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"Breathe sweetie, breathe. Take deep breaths, in and out. In and out."

I really tried to follow Dr. Lopez's words, but it didn't seem to be working. Soon, everything just faded to black.

XXX

Santana didn't really know what to do, because Quinn wasn't able to follow her instructions. She fished out her phone from her pocket and pushed the speed dial to call Brittany. After the second ring, Brittany was on.

_"Hey San, is everything ok?"_

_"No Britt, please come over here. Fast!"_

Brittany didn't even hear the end of the sentence and sprinted next door. She found Santana sitting on the bed with Quinn in her arms, but wasn't really sure what was going on.

"What happened, San?" Brittany asked.

"She couldn't calm down, Britt. I think she passed out."

Santana was very worried. She had never seen anything like that.

"I don't think there's anything we can do about this. Let's just call for help," Brittany said, pushing the red button on the wall.

After a couple of minutes later, 2 other doctors and a nurse came in and looked expectantly at Santana.

"She had a panic attack while she was sleeping. I tried to calm her down. It worked at first, but then she got more stressed and just passed out."

One of the doctors ran out and back with some medication. Since Quinn still had an IV attached to her, he just put it into the bag. He gave Santana a syringe, which she used to press down onto Quinn's thigh. A couple seconds later, Quinn shot up to a sitting position again, panting loudly.

XXX

I felt my body reacting to something, making me sit up immediately. I opened my eyes and saw a lot of people in my room. I was glad that Brittany and Dr. Lopez were here with me though.

"What happened?" I asked in a quiet voice, tears spilling down my cheeks.


	5. Chapter 5

Tears were still rolling down my face, but fortunately, my breathing was back to normal again. I noticed that the people were still in my room, but heard Brittany ask them to leave.

"Santana, if you need us again, just push the button," one of the other doctors said before closing the door.

"Should I stay a little longer or do you want me to leave?" Brittany asked.

I wasn't really sure whether Brittany was asking her wife, or me so I replied "I'm ok for now. You should probably start looking after your new patient. Thanks for coming by."

Dr. Lopez gave me a look, but nodded, so I was left alone with her in the room.

"Do you want to tell me why you had a panic attack in your sleep?" Dr. Lopez asked.

I was hesitant at first, but after thinking about all she and Brittany had been doing for me so far, I went with my gut feeling that was telling me to trust this woman.

"I just remembered how everything started," I told the doctor as fresh tears started rolling down my cheeks.

Dr. Lopez remained silent so that I could continue talking, but hugged me tight against her body.

"It was the beginning of freshmen year when I started dance as an afterschool extracurricular activity. I had stayed longer because I felt like I needed more practice. Once I finished, I texted my mom to pick me up, and then began walking through the hallway. That's where I heard people talking and laughing really loudly in a room. I stood in front of the door so that I could hear what they were saying, but still remained hidden from them."

I curled myself into a ball and turned so that I was facing the wall. I just couldn't finish the rest of the story. I don't know how long I remained in that position, but when I sat up again, the clock read 6pm. I felt helpless. All I've been doing is sleep, cry, and talk with Dr. Lopez and her wife. I looked around the room again and saw the Latina get up from her seat and walk over to me.

"You're awake. That's good sweetie. What would you like for dinner?" Dr. Lopez asked.

I looked at her with shocked eyes, because I just realized that I haven't eaten or drank anything today.

"Can I just have an apple juice please? I replied.

She nodded and wrote something on her phone. A couple minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Somebody walked inside, carrying a tray of food as well as my apple juice and what I assumed to be Dr. Lopez's tea.

"Do you want to have a straw for your apple juice?" the woman carrying the tray asked.

"Yes please."

The women walked out of the room and then came back with a straw and a pillow.

"Would you like a blanket as well, Santana?"

"That would be great, thanks. Can you bring one of the thin ones as well as one of the thicker ones? I'm not really sure whether this room is cold or not."

After a couple of minutes, she came back with the two blankets as requested by Dr. Lopez.

"If you need anything else, Santana, you know where you can find me," the woman said. "Bye kiddo, it was really nice to meet you."

Once the nice lady walked out of the room, I looked at Dr. Lopez, who was moving some of the food on the tray to the other side, putting my apple juice as well as two bags filled with liquids that were different colors. One was transparent, while the other was dark yellow.

"Do you want to have a drink first, or would you like me to work on you first," Dr. Lopez asked.

I wasn't really sure what she meant by working on me, so I just went with the safe option. Dr. Lopez took both of the bags and walked towards my bed. She put them down on my bead, and then started to unplug something that was over my head.

"What is that?" I asked.

"The yellow one is a type of food for your body which will feed you for the first couple of days. You really don't want to know what is inside though. This is what is going up through your nose. The other one is just water so you don't dry out."

"How many of these do I get per day?" I asked.

"Well for today, this is your third bag of food and your fourth bag of water. Usually you have two bags of water, but because you haven't been drinking anything, we had to give you more. Would you like your juice now?"

"Yes please. Are you going to eat alone on the couch, or do you want to sit next to me so you're not that lonely?"

The look on her face was priceless. I could tell she was surprised that I would ask her that question, because I normally didn't like to be around people, let alone eat with them. Dr. Lopez nodded and set the tray down on the table that was pushed up next to my bed. She pulled a chair over and sat down next to me. On the tray, there were vegetables, rice, and meat. There was also a small bowl of sauce for the beef. Looking at the food made me hungry, but I didn't eat it just in case it would interfere with the food from the bags that I was hooked up with. I simply took sips of my apple juice and played with my straw. Once we were both done, the doctor began to make small talk with me. Later on, the woman came back again and took the tray away, then brought in two bottles of water.

"Quinn," Dr. Lopez said. "It's getting late, why don't you get some rest?"

I looked at her, questioning whether or not she was being serious. I haven't gone to bed this early since I was 6 years old.

"Would you like me to tuck you in?" Dr. Lopez asked with a smile.

I nodded, because my mom never did that for me.

"What are you going to do when I'm asleep?" I asked.

"Well when the patients come in, the main doctor or nurse has to stay with them for at least 24 hours. After that, we need to visit them and check how they're doing so we can help them get better," the doctor answered.

"Don't you get bored?"

"No, I can do other things like watch a movie or draw something when there's nothing much to do. However, we do have to keep in mind that the wellbeing of the patients is the main priority."

"So what activities do you have planned once I'm asleep?" I asked.

"I didn't have much sleep for the past few days, so I'm going to crash as well. If there's anything wrong, please wake me up. It doesn't matter what it is, even if it's something like wanting a glass of water, ok sweetie?"

"Even when I'm bored?" I asked with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, sure," she replied with a smile while pulling the blanket over the body, sitting down next to me.

"Would you like me to sing you a song or read you a story?"

"No thanks, I'm ok."

I curled myself towards her so that my body was sure that I wasn't alone on the bed. I fell asleep pretty quickly with happy thoughts of how lucky I was to have someone like Dr. Lopez taking care of me.


	6. Chapter 6

Rachel is a great dancer. She started dancing when she was two and a half years old, and participated in her first competition when she was five. She is currently recognized as one of the best dancers at the moment. She won the national title four years in arrow, but couldn't compete last year before she was sick and was forced to lie on a hospital bed. After the doctors told her that she wouldn't be able to dance for the next three weeks, she broke down and cried for the next couple of days.

Her daddy works as a lawyer and therefore isn't able to go to every dance competition that she participates in, but he is always there when it's an important one. Her dad records all of them so that she can look back at it, but most importantly, so that her daddy can watch everything he missed.

Rachel's dance teacher, Mary, teaches her one or two different dance routines every week. Sometimes when they don't have enough members for a team, she dances with them in the group numbers and also spends time trying to help the others improve.

Her schedule is almost completely full. She only has two hours of free time everyday. Rachel was homeschooled at the age of eight by her dad, because she was always tired from all the extracurricular activities she was doing. The teachers didn't really understand how she was the top of the class when she spent most of her time sleeping in class.

Rachel stopped eating meat or any dairy products after she learnt where every food product and the whole process in which the animals are killed and packaged.

Rachel has her own dance studio at home, which is located on the second floor. On one of the walls of her dance studio is a huge screen where she can show Mary her moves virtually. Her dance teacher sometimes teaches through the screen when both of Rachel's parents have to work, and when Mary or Mary's kids are sick, which forces the dance teacher to stay at home.

Everybody at Mary's dance studio knew that Rachel was the best, and that they could learn a lot from her. The girl stayed there for five hours most days and practices at home too, while the others just come in for one or two hours, thinking that they can win everything. Because of her intense amount of dancing, Rachel had to take quite a few breaks from it. She has sprained her ankle three times, had a bad flu twice, and broke her foot once. Rachel's teammates were always impressed with what she could do immediately after recovering. Most of them couldn't even do a split two weeks without training. They did not know that Rachel's dad stretched her body twice a day and that Rachel was determined to dance even if she was sick or was forced to stay in her bed. Her dad had to cuff her to the bed once, because she simply wouldn't stop moving.

Rachel hates shopping at the mall. She felt uncomfortable whenever she looked into a mirror. Her body just wasn't perfect in her eyes. She always admired the thin dancers on state. They always looked so perfect. It surprised her that she was the one who won all the prizes, and not those girls who looked much better than her. She never realized that she started skipping meals. She ate breakfast everyday with her parents, and after that she would dance for a while before taking a little nap. Her dad would tutor her and then she would do some schoolwork. By the time she was finished with her work, all she wanted to do was go and dance, therefore lunch never existed in Rachel's mind. Up in her studio, she would sometimes either just sit or stand by the window and looked outside to admire the view and let time fly by. Her daddy would come home and ask her if she would like to go downstairs and eat with them or just to watch a movie with them. However, she often overworked herself and all her body wanted to do was sleep. It wasn't like she didn't eat or noticed it, but her body was used to this, and so was she.

Rachel never went to the park or had play-dates with friends because she didn't really have them. As a little kid, she was loud and outgoing, but nobody liked her, and she always saw the other kids playing in groups and was always left alone. The teachers tried to include her, but it didn't work, so little Rachel was always left in a corner to color or in another room dancing to some music on her own. Since Rachel couldn't make any friends in first and second grade, her parents saw her potential in dancing and decided to simply home school her and to support her with the things she loved. The look on her face when the last note of the song came was pure joy and happiness, and they wouldn't want to take that away from her.

XXX

The competition wasn't one of the most important ones, but Rachel wanted to learn a new dance in order to challenge herself. It had a lot of new tricks in it, which meant that she had to stay up extra late to perfect all of the moves. Her daddy woke her up in the morning and they all ate breakfast. She showered and fell asleep in the car. Her dad had packed everything because he had gone to bed before her and couldn't bring himself to take away the joy of dancing from her.

Rachel slept until they arrived at the venue of the competition, only waking up when her dad shook her. Mary was also there and did her hair as well as her makeup. Rachel changed into her costume and sat down to take a sip of water, because she felt a little dizzy. She didn't think too much about it and went on stage to watch the two girls, who were performing, mentally preparing herself for her turn to shine.

She walked onto the stage and looked at her dad. When she found him, her smile grew wider. She danced perfectly. Every move was in sync with the music.

She walked on stage and looked for her dad after she found him her smile grew wider. She danced perfectly. Everything was at sync with the music. As she held the salt pose at the end, her dad couldn't see the joy in her eyes, and knew that something was wrong. He wasn't sure if it was the light or if Rachel looked very pale. He stood up and ran backstage where Rachel should be, but all he saw were some dancers with a lot of different costumes standing in a circle around something. He ran as fast as he could and was shocked to see Rachel passed out on the floor. Seconds later he picked her up and noticed that she was really light, lighter than she was a couple months ago, when he had to carry her to her room after she fell asleep after another competition. He ran with her to the nurse's office. The nurse had already been alerted that he was on his way. The nurse took her blood pressure and did some other tests before telling Mr. Berry that Rachel would wake up soon.

After a minute went by of nothing happening with Rachel, her dad told the nurse that if there were still no sign of improvement in the next five minutes, he would call for an ambulance. The nurse simply replied that she had a lot of patients like that and told Rachel's dad not to worry about it before walking out of the room. Suddenly, a woman ran inside, carrying a little girl who looked slightly younger than Rachel in her arms.

"She just fell on stage and isn't moving. Can you please help her?" the women asked anxiously.

"Just put her down on the bed. She will wake up soon," the nurse replied.

At that same moment, Rachel's dad saw his daughter move her hand. He immediately took it inside of his and whispered soothing words into her ear. Rachel opened her eyes slowly and looked around at her surroundings. Her dad held a bottle of water out for her and told her to drink it, to which she obeyed. The other girl was still lying on the bed unmoving, but her mother walked towards them and looked at Rachel.

"Hello, my name is Allison. Is it ok if I talk to your dad for a second?"

Rachel nodded, and the two adults waked outside to have a conversation in private.

Allison told Rachel's dad a lot about the special clinic in Tennessee, and that they were going to send their daughter there for treatment. She told him that she noticed Rachel was extremely thin, which is not normal at all. In the end, Rachel's dad agreed that they should both send their kids to that clinic.


	7. Chapter 7

Here's Quinn's POV:

Waking up here is a lot different from what it felt like when I was home. I couldn't really move my body because it was so tired. Another hindrance would be the tubes that were attached to my body. I looked around the room, which was still dark. It was probably the middle of the night already. I thought about what Dr. Lopez had told me before I fell asleep. "_You can wake me up if you ever need anything, even if you're just bored." _Should I really wake her, or would it be better to try falling asleep again? I take the latter option and tried to wait for sleep to consume me. It never happened. I tried making small sounds just to see if Dr. Lopez was a light or deep sleeper. It turns out that she was a light sleeper, because she moved whenever I made some noise. Dr. Lopez looks over at the bed and sees that I'm not lying down, but sitting up against the wall instead.

"Are you ok sweetie?" Dr. Lopez asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah. I tried to fall asleep again, but it didn't work," I explained.

Dr. Lopez quickly stood up and turned on a little light so that she could see my face. "Look at me, honey."

I didn't react, because I felt so stupid for not being able to do such a simple thing. I looked down at the floor and refused to meet the Latina's eyes. Dr. Lopez gently puts her hands on my boney face and tilted it upwards so that she could look at me directly.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. I truly felt bad about waking her up.

"Why are you sorry?" Dr. Lopez asked. "Is it because you woke me up? You don't need to worry about that. I can't really sleep for long periods of time anyway, so I would have woken up sooner or later to check up on you. And remember that I told you that you could wake me up whenever you needed me before? That offer will never expire."

I relaxed at her reassuring words.

"Do you want to do anything, or do you need more sleep?" Dr. Lopez asked.

"I think I had enough sleep. I don't think I'm capable of sleeping any longer," I answered.

"That's understandable. You slept for almost the whole day and the night before. Your body would have automatically woke up by itself at some point," Dr. Lopez said as she looked around the room. "I could ask one of the nurses to bring you some juice or something else that you want."

"Juice would be great," I replied. "Thank you."

Dr. Lopez stood up and picked up her phone, which lay on the coffee table. She sent a text message and then put it down again, coming back to my side.

"Let's see if anybody is awake in the nurses' room. If there's no reply, I'll just go and get your juice for you. Will you be fine if I left the room for a moment?"

"It's ok," I said. "You don't need to leave. You're not supposed to, and I don't want you to get into any trouble."

Her phone lit up, making the doctor smile. "Good news, someone is awake! Do you want anything else other than an apple juice?"

"An apple juice will be fine" I replied. "If you're hungry, you should order something for yourself too."

"That's so sweet of you, but I'm good right now."

A couple of minutes later, the door opened and a nurse came in with a cup of apple juice and a straw for me.

"Here you go, sweetie. Have a good night," she said before leaving the room quickly.

"She's afraid of me, which is the reason why she leaves so quickly all the time," Dr. Lopez informed me.

"Why is she afraid of you?" I asked.

"Well there are a lot of categories that patients can be classified under. I started from the lowest category and worked my way up to the top. All of my patients have had good recoveries, while some of the other doctors and nurses have failed. The nurse that just came in started with the second highest category, but has fallen down the pecking order, so she's at the bottom now," Dr. Lopez said. "Do you understand what I'm getting at?"

I nodded. "You're one of the best, while she on the other hand, isn't that good. So that makes me really lucky to have you as my doctor, right?"

Dr. Lopez chuckled. "You're too sweet. Thanks for thinking of me in that way. Is there anything you would like to do?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly, looking back down on the floor.

"Why don't we start by finding something that interests you?" Dr. Lopez suggested.

"That would be nice, but isn't it a little early to do that now?"

"I guess so. How about you listen to some music for now, while I go get you some new bags for the morning. We can brainstorm some ideas later. They don't have to be spot on right away. You have a lot of time to try out different things. I won't stop you from doing anything, that is, unless it's dangerous or not good for your health," Dr. Lopez replied.

"I'm fine with that," I said.

I lay my head back down on the pillow again. I heard music softly playing in the background. Dr. Lopez lay down next to me, allowing me to rest my head on top of her. My felt my body relax into hers, making it easier for me to fall asleep. When we woke up, the sun was shining down brightly through the window and onto our faces.


	8. Chapter 8

As Rachel slowly woke up, she realized that she was strapped to a bed and in some type of transportation that was moving while still in her groggy state. She soon passed out again. The next time she woke up, she was being pushed through some sort of arrival hall and then brought into a room that looked like an emergency room found in a hospital, but with a much fancier entrance that looked like a hotel. When she looked up, she saw an IV attached to her hand, as well as some tubes that were connected to her nose. Two bags were also hanging on a movable metal pole over her head. A couple minutes later, a tall blonde woman came inside.

"Hi, my name is Brittany. What's your name?" the woman asked in a caring tone.

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rachel Barbra Berry," Rachel answered.

"How're you feeling, Rachel?" Brittany asked.

"I'm feeling quite alright at the moment, but I wasn't earlier. I fainted after I was onstage earlier. Do you know when I can go home?"

"I'm glad to hear that you're feeling ok. We still have to take some tests and then look after you for a while. I'm sorry to tell you that you won't be going home anytime soon," Brittany replied.

Rachel looked into Brittany's eyes to see if she was being serious. From previous experience, Rachel could tell that the blonde was telling her the truth. Her brown eyes started to feel heavy, and soon, she couldn't hold her tears back anymore.

"What? Why? I have to train and prepare for my next competition!" Rachel said with a sniffle.

Brittany felt sorry for the poor girl that was crying in front of her. She didn't even know why she was taken away from her "normal life" and brought here. However, the blonde knew that whenever someone needed to be comforted, she was the best person to go to. After taking a deep breath, Brittany sat down on the bed next to Rachel and took the smaller girl into her arms, giving her a big comforting hug.

The door flew open again later; a doctor came in to start the examination. This examination would determine which category Rachel would be classified under. Brittany had to leave the room under standard procedure. 30 minutes later, Rachel was put under category B and Brittany was officially assigned as the main nurse/doctor for her case. The blonde was happy that Rachel got to stay in the same room that she was in, because that meant that she could be closer to Santana as well.

Brittany waited inside Rachel's room until the girl was brought back in with a wheelchair, pushed by the doctor that had conducted the examination.

"Britt, can I have a word with you?" the doctor asked.

"Sure," Brittany replied, walking outside to give them some privacy. "I'll be right back, Rachel."

"She isn't in good condition," the doctor said. "She hasn't really eaten in the last couple of days, but it may be because she puts herself under a lot of pressure to perfect her dancing. I think it's not necessary to feed her through the nose unless she refuses to eat normal portions. Perhaps you should take pictures of the food before and after Rachel eats it as proof for he records. Make sure that Rachel doesn't do any activities for the next couple of days. She needs to gain more weight. Rachel seems to be really obsessed with dancing, so it would be a good idea to try to get her to have different interests. I know you're the perfect person to work with her, Britt. Good luck!"

"Thanks," Brittany got out before the doctor had to rush to check on another patient.

Brittany walked back into the room and felt a little sad when she saw Rachel curled up in her bed, with tears still streaming down her face.

"Hey Rachel, look at me," Brittany gently said.

The girl didn't look up, so Brittany lightly touched her face and moved it so that their eyes could meet.

"I know that you're sad and disappointed right now because you're stuck here and can't dance at the moment, but I promise you that I will find a way for you to do it again. But you have to promise me that you will try your best to get better. Your body is at its limit at the moment and it will collapse again if you don't start trying to get healthier. Can you promise me that you'll do that?"

"I'll try," Rachel answered.

* * *

Alese222: Don't worry I am working on it.

VFL89: I threw a couple of pins on a map and looked at the citys online and Maryville looked like a nice place.


	9. Chapter 9

It was Rachel's second night in her room, and Brittany still couldn't sleep because of the images in her mind. She first saw Rachel getting wheeled through the lobby and then placed on the bed. She saw a helpless girl that was extremely pale, lying in a bed with lots of tubes connected to her body and sweat pearling from her forehead. Brittany remembered that she had gone inside the room that was right before the one that Rachel was assigned. She washed her hands and put one of those doctor's coats over her regular clothes, tying her hair back into a high pony as per the guidelines of the clinic. Rachel slowly started to eat a little, but was still required to have a tube attached to her nose. The blonde took pictures of the before and after of each meal and sent them to Santana.

It was 2am when Brittany noticed a light blinking from the table. It took her some time to realize that it was her phone. The blonde sat up from the couch and took her phone into her hand, swiping the screen to unlock the device. She saw a new message from her lovely wife, which made her smile.

"_I don't know if you're asleep at the moment, but if you're reading this right now, I'd love to talk to you outside in the hallway for a second. Love you! –S"_

Brittany typed in her reply and then quietly walked into the hallway. After a little make out session, Santana looked at her wife with concerned eyes. She knew that there was something bothering her at the moment, but didn't' want to mention it bluntly. "B, what's wrong?" Santana asked, while her eyes were still locked on Brittany, who was looking at the ground and mumbled something in response. "What was that, B? You're going to have to speak louder. You need to tell me if there's something wrong."

After a while, Brittany finally found her words again. "It-it's just … I just can't get the images of everything that happened for the past couple of days out of my head. They're all about Rachel. She's slowly getting better now, but I can't remove the tube just yet."

Brittany didn't have to outright tell Santana what she was thinking for the Latina to be on the exact same page. This was precisely the way she felt when she met Quinn for the first time. She also recalled Brittany acting like this when they first started working in this clinic. "I think we should go outside to the garden. We can sit there and goof off on the grass and with the flowers. I could braid some of them into your hair like I did when we were in the garden this summer," Santana suggested. Brittany immediately began to smile as she thought of just how carefree they were when they were younger, where everything much easier than it was now. Hey cuddled on the floor for a while 'til one of the night nurses walked down the hallway and stopped in front of them. They didn't even notice the smirking woman 'til she tapped her foot on the floor to make some noise.

They both broke apart and looked up to see Melissa, who was one of their good friends since they first started working with the lower categories of patients. "Well, who do I see here in the middle of the night in front of the patients' rooms cuddled on the floor?" Melissa said, still smirking at the two who were caught red handed. After only communicating with their eyes, Santana finally spoke. "We didn't have any time to see each other during the last couple of days. I also know that B is a little sad and not her usual self when she's assigned new patients who come in and are in a really bad condition. She's had a hard time sleeping for the past couple of days, so I wanted to help her deal with everything." Melissa nodded in understanding, still smirking at how adorable those two were. "Well in that case, I'll let you off, but it would be a good idea to go back to the patients' rooms now. They might have woken up and are clueless as to where their doctors are. The weather tomorrow should be quite nice. Maybe you can both go outside and have fun there. I'll walk around now and when I come back, I hope that I won't find you both still here."

Quinn woke up in her bed and looked around, startled. She had a bad dream. The room was still dark, so it had to be in the middle of the night. The blonde remembered that Dr. Lopez had comforted her last night, so she assumed that she would be in her bed like she was for the previous nights. Quinn took her right hand and felt around her bed, but found it to be empty. She then sat up to look around the room. She saw the second pillow where it was evident that someone had slept on it and then proceeded to put her hand on the mattress again, only to find it cold. Panicking, she looked around the room again, just to make sure, and saw that the couch was empty as well. Quinn only felt safe when she was with Dr. Lopez, but at the moment, she was alone.

The blonde was scared, and she didn't know if Dr. Lopez was coming back. Tears started streaming down her face. _Did nobody care about her? Is that why everyone always left her?_ Quinn's dream came back to plague her mind again. She was walking down the street on her way home when a car appeared and slowed down next to her. Inside were all the popular kids. Two of them were football players and the other three were Cheerios. She decided to play it cool and just kept walking, but the car just kept following her. They kept throwing insults at her, but she had already learnt to ignore them due to years of practice.

As she continued walking, she felt something hitting her back. _Just keep walking; you'll be home soon_. Quinn consoled herself and tried to remain calm, walking down the street in a steady pace. She felt another thing thrown at her, this time, on her head. She felt cool liquid running down her long blonde hair. Quinn picked up her pace when more things were thrown at her. When the blonde realized that it was raw eggs that were thrown at her, she panicked and started to run.

When she reached her house, she was already crying. She slammed the door and walked into the kitchen. Her mom was inside and heard the loud noise, so she came out to make sure that the younger blonde was ok. Judy knew that Quinn was afraid of eggs, especially raw ones, and to see her daughter covered in them just broker her heart. She picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, where she helped her out of her clothes and gently put Quinn inside the shower. Judy stayed inside the shower and comforted her daughter, who was breaking down on the floor.

When Santana walked back into the room, Quinn was crying her eyes out. The Latina was shocked by what she saw and immediately took the girl into her arms and tried to calm her down. She knew from the previous panic attack that Quinn may need medication, but she planned to give it to the blonde later once she was in a less hysterical state.

After what felt like hours, Quinn finally calmed down and fell asleep again. Santana felt really guilty, because she wasn't there for the girl and still had no clue as to what had caused the panic attack.


	10. Chapter 10

As Brittany walks back into her room, she sighs in relief. Rachel is still lying in the bed like she left her. She sits down next to her and pushes some hair out of her face. Rachel looked so relaxed that Brittany wonders why Rachel couldn't be the same during the day as well. After a while, when Brittany is sure everything is okay, she goes to the couch and lies down. She pulls a blanket over her head and easily falls asleep. Brittany and Rachel are okay and sleep peacefully until the morning. Rachel then woke up; Quinn and Santana were still sleeping. After Quinn's breakdown earlier that night, they are both a little exhausted. They both sleep a little longer until 8:30am, when nurse comes into the room and bring two new bags for Quinn. One is filled with water and the other with specialized food. They also bring a tray with two bottles of water, a glass of orange juice, some cut fruit and a protein bar.

"If you need anything else, Doctor Lopez, just let me know," the nurse says. "We only put the things on the tray that Brittany told us to," and with that she leaves. Santana was a little confused. Britt told the nurse what they should get her for breakfast? She may have woken up early, but Santana is curious as to what would be on the tray. She looks at Quinn to make sure she's still asleep and moves away slowly so that she won't risk waking up Quinn—she needs to sleep a little longer. On the tray sit all of her favorite things. She never eats a lot for breakfast, but Brittany made sure that she would at least eat something; that was one of the reasons why she only got into the low category in this house. Santana walks to Quinn and changes both of her bags as silent as she possible and quietly sits down on the couch. She sends a sweet text to her wife telling her how amazing she is and that she loves her before starting to eat. Quinn wakes up after a little while, but Santana is still eating. Standing up, she walks next to the bed and looks at the IV in her hand and checks if anything happened.

"Good morning, Quinn. Did you sleep well?" Santana asks as Quinn's eyes adjust to the bright light that comes through the window.

"I slept well, thank you," answers Quinn with a little smile.

"I see. Today is a really nice day, so I thought we could go outside with Britt and her patient, if, of course, it's okay with you?" Quinn's eyes light up, she hasn't been outside in a long time—and from what she sees out of her window, there's a lot of space outside. The area is littered with some flowers and trees; it would be so pretty out there. She quickly agrees.

"That sounds like a lovely idea. Can you tell me a little bit about Brittany's patient? I would like to be prepared for when I meet her." Quinn is a little afraid that the question sounds weird.

"Of course I can tell you some things. I don't really know much, however I know it's a girl. There's also some other medical things…" Santana mutters before smiling as though Quinn didn't hear that. "Her name's Rachel and I think she's one year older than you. I also heard that she was a dancer," says Santana as she looks at Quinn's face. Quinn processes the information. She's going to meet a girl who's almost the same age as her—which is exciting for her, because she didn't have any friends at home—and the girl in the room next to her probably has similar symptoms to her. Santana said she knew some medical stuff, was she allowed to ask about that or is that stuff only for the doctors and nurses to talk about? She could still try and ask because asking never hurt.

"Is she here because of the same reasons I am?" asked Quinn finally with a light voice. Santana understands immediately that Quinn is afraid she would get judged or that nobody will understand her, so Santana didn't see the harm in telling her some of the information she gathered.

"Well, Quinn look at me," says Santana and when Quinn doesn't look up, she takes her chin gently in her hand and turns her head until she can look her in the eye. "You are a patient that we would categorize as A, which means that you have a lot of things we have to work on together and it will take some time, but we are here to help you in any way you need to get better. Rachel, who is in the other room, is categorized as B, which means almost the same thing only … I don't really know how I can say it in a nice way but I'll try... You are here because you didn't eat in a long time and haven't eaten anything since you got here—which is totally normal considering you've only been here for a couple of days. You also had some type of panic attack, some bad dreams and a lot of other stuff from which we need to look at. Do you understand?" Quinn nods, so she continues. "With Rachel, we know a lot more about her medical history. I could say she doesn't have as many things she needs help with like you. She has a lot, but that is why she is in category B and not in category D or E. So what I want to say is that Rachel has a lot of baggage like you do so at some point you and Rachel can become friends and you could just talk to her and ask for advice."

"So you think that Rachel will like me?"

"Why wouldn't she? I think you are a very sweet and nice girl who, yes, is a little shy, but if she gets to know people, she can be around them like every other person because she met them and learned that they just want the best for her. So yes, I think that Rachel would like you." Quinn has small tears running down her cheeks. It was so nice to hear someone talk about her in a way; she hasn't heard something as beautiful as that in a long time.

Quinn hugs Doctor Lopez tightly and asks, "When do we go outside?"

"In a little while, it is still early, so probably in a couple of hours. Before that, though, I could help you to take a shower or a bath, whatever you're more comfortable with. Then we'll have a lot of fun."

"I'd like to take a shower please."

"Okay, we have to wait until your food is finished and your IV as well, but that'll probably be in 20 minutes." Santana's phone makes a sound and she gets up to see what it is: a text from Brittany. _Can we have a picnic outside?_ "Brittany wants to know if it's okay if we can have a little picnic. I know you haven't eaten in a long time but would it be okay? You could try something if you want then?" asks Santana, but she knew that it was a difficult subject with people like Quinn.

"I can try a little bit, but I don't promise anything," says Quinn with a light smile on her face again. Nobody will pressure her here, she knew that and if she was allowed to decide, why would she say no to the person she only met once? Santana answers Brittany's text message and helps Quinn to shower. She makes a little braid so that her bangs won't be all in her pretty face. With a nice summer dress that Quinn's parents bought for her, they walk outside into the big garden.


	11. Chapter 11

Rachel got excited when she heard that she could go outside today. After only a couple of days in her room, she couldn't really do anything. Brittany made sure she got enough sleep, and that she ate as much as she could. Even though she still had the tube in her nose, she hoped to get it out soon. She tried to eat more every time, even when her stomach wasn't used to it. That's why she was puking in the bathroom yesterday morning after her breakfast. It helped her that Brittany was there to calm her down, because she was so upset. Brittany told her that it was totally normal, and that it happens to a lot of people. That all was forgotten then. There was nothing better in the mind of Rachel, than going outside to do exercises or move around after lying in bed all day. What she didn't know, was that they would mostly sit on a blanket under a tree in the grass.

Brittany walked into the kitchen where she ordered some food they would have for the picnic. The chef looked at her and said,

"Hello Brittany, do you need that for you and your wife, or are you taking it to a patient out in the Garden?", Brittany smiled because she remembered how she and Santana stole some food from the kitchen and had a lovely day out in the Garden,

"No, San and I are taking our new patient girls out for their first time, they haven't been here long.", the chef looked a little at her and wondered why they didn't go out before. Brittany saw it on his face and spoke,

"They are on A and B", now he knew why they were just allowed the first time out.

"Are they even going to eat?"

"Well, my girl does a little. We want to see if maybe we could bring Santana's too. If she is in a small group, you don't want to be the only one who sits there, while everybody else is eating."

"Just have fun out there, and if you need anything, you know where you can find me.", and with that Brittany walked out, took the blanket under her arm, and the basket of food in her other hand. Rachel was waiting by one of the doors in a comfortable chair for Brittany to come back, so they finally could go outside. Brittany walked fast into the Garden, and had a big smile on her face.

* * *

She and Rachel were the first one to arrive, so they just sat the things on the floor. Rachel ran around a little, it was nice weather, the sky was blue, and the flowers looked extremely pretty because the sun made them smile. Rachel ran around and danced. She made turn after turn, it looked like she never wanted to stop. But Brittany called her name after a short time, but Rachel didn't know why. That was until she saw a tall woman with long black hair, and a kid in a nice summer dress next to her, walking in their direction. She was kind of surprised, because she didn't know that they would meet somebody today.

"Come on Quinn. I think that Britt and Rachel are already outside.", said doctor Lopez, as she waited on the couch for Quinn. In that moment she came out quickly.

"We can go now", Quinn said, as she ran her fingers through her hair. They closed the door and walked down a long hallway till they were at an elevator. Quinn pushed the button and looked around everywhere. She only saw everything that was inside her room so that this was a little exciting for her. She noticed the different paintings on the walls, and some tags on doors that weren't rooms for patients. There was a bing, which meant that the elevator was here.

They were on the 3rd floor, and Dr. Lopez pushed the button that was tagged lobby. After a short ride in the silver elevator that didn't have any mirrors inside, Quinn wondered, 'Why?'. They walked into a nice open lobby, it looked like the entrance from a nice hotel, everything was white or cream colored, while the floor was black. Doctor Lopez walked into the direction of the Garden door, but soon noticed that Quinn wasn't coming, so she walked back and studied the girls face. It showed that she was apparently really amazed how everything looked around here, she did the same thing on her first day of work,

"Earth to Quinn, didn't we want to meet Britt and Rachel outside?", as Quinn heard the familiar voice she looked up and saw Dr. Lopez with a funny expression.

"Yes we can go, everything just looks so pretty, I've never seen something like that before."

"Sure kiddo, come on, they're already waiting."

They walked through an open glass door that lead into the Garden. At first Quinn saw some benches and a playground for little kids. As they walked by, she also saw a bigger swing set that stood alone which was evidently for bigger kids. As they continued to walk, they came to a bigger grass floor with some really old trees here and there. By one tree, she saw a girl turning around in circles, seemingly dancing, she looked so carefree. Quinn couldn't stop but to stare at her,

"Come on Quinn, lets go and meet Britt and Rachel."

The girl stopped dancing and walked to Brittany. As they reached them, Santana took her wife in a big hug and kissed her, because she didn't have much time to do that at all.

As they finally stopped, they noticed the two girls still standing at the same spot as before. Brittany saw that they wouldn't say anything, so she walked to Quinn, and took her hand,

"Quinn, that's Rachel, she's in the room next to you, and it would be nice if you could introduce yourself. I and Santana will go to the tree to set up the blanket.", Brittany said then walked back to her wife, took her hand and they took the blanket and basket with them.

Quinn just stood there for a moment, until she held her hand out to Rachel, and said,

"Hi, my name is Quinn, it's really nice to meet you.", Rachel took her hand, she saw how nervous the girl opposite of her was,

"Hello, my name is Rachel Berry, it is my pleasure to meet you as well.", Rachel noticed as she studied Quinn's face, that she was a really pretty girl, but had a tube in her nose, and she felt a little sorry for her, but didn't want to mention it towards her. Apparently she was here for a longer time than her, because Brittany knew her.

Finally Quinn let some words out of her mouth, "I saw you dancing before, it looked really pretty. As if you weren't on earth, instead in some kind of a dream, and didn't care that you were here in the park."

"Well I used to dance every weekend on big stages at different competitions around the country, and I really miss it now because I was only allowed to stay in bed since I came here. It was a nice change. How about you, is this your first time outside as well?", Rachel questioned, because she just could tell how nervous Quinn was. After seeing it every weekend with the other kids she met at the competitions, she just could tell by Quinn's body language.

"Yeah, I don't even remember when I came here, but I think it was over a week ago."

Rachel thought if she would start to ask some light and easy questions, that they could start a conversation, because she really wanted to get to know that girl.

"So Brittany apparently knew you, but since I'm here she never left my side, why is that?"

Quinn thought about how she was going to answer the question, if she should tell Rachel the truth or should she lie, "I had a really bad breakdown. Dr. Lopez didn't know what to do after she tried so many things, so she called Brittany, and some other doctors came with her. I don't remember much, but they gave me something in my IV and something in my leg and then I got better then they all left. Brittany came soon after with a tray of food for her and Santana from their apartment that they ate in my room as I slept because doctor Lopez didn't ate much that day and Brittany hadn't any patients. But then there came a call and I think that it was about you, and another girl because they kept talking about two people, but one was in a total different category.

"Yes I came mainly because there was a girl at the competition who was brought here, so they asked my dad if it would be okay to bring me here too. So now, here I am"

"Well I'm glad, so now I could meet you and you seem like a really nice person."

"You are really nice too.", Rachel complimented, and looked to the tree where Brittany and Santana were putting the blanket down and setting some of the food up, "We should probably go back to them, what do you think Quinn?", the blonde girl looked around, but didn't see any other thing that they could do at the moment, so she held her hand out to Rachel,

"Let's go.", Rachel took her hand, and they walked together to their doctors who sat curled up under the tree.


	12. Chapter 12

They all were sitting on the blanked listening to Rachel talking about her life, how she danced everyday since she was three, how structured her day was planned and how mad she got at herself. They also heard that she rarely had time to eat, which would prove troublesome when dancing. She'd end her sessions shaking sometimes and for some reason that only made her a stronger dancer.

During all the rambling Santana, Brittany, and Rachel were eating some of the cut pieces of fruit that they brought. There were also two tiny pieces of cake, of which Brittany was eating one at the moment. Quinn saw all those fruit pieces, after an hour staring at them she finally made her mind up to start with a piece of banana. Her eyes slowly wandered with her hand to the open box, she looked up but nobody noticed so she took it and brought it to her mouth. She bit a tiny piece from it and enjoyed the taste because she didn't have anything else besides water in months. So she really enjoyed it and started to chew the whole piece slowly. After her mind returned to reality again, she looked up and saw that Rachel was still talking so her hand wandered to the box again and she ate a second piece. Now concentrating on Rachel and the fruit between her fingers.

Santana and Brittany both noticed Quinn's hand slowly grabbing a piece of fruit but they didn't look at her to eat. She needed to be in her own bubble and experience the things that needed to be learned again. Which is a thing they learned after they started to work here.

After all that was over Rachel and Quinn got up to explore the surroundings a little more. They walked back to the Tree where they meet before and Quinn asked Rachel, "Could you dance again? It looked so beautiful!"

Rachel looked a little skeptical. Yes she loved to dance but never had anybody call what she was doing beautiful. She knows that she wins almost every competition, but that made her smile for the first time in a very long time. "Of course. But I don't have any music here so I'll just have to hear it in my head." She answered Quinn.

"That's fine with me," Quinn smiled, "You looked so peaceful and free the last time so I just wanted to see you dance again."

So Rachel stepped a couple feet away and started to move around and made turns like she was dancing on stage with a little difficulty because the grass wasn't exactly the greatest floor. The turns she did some turns made her happy with what she was doing and a small smile crept onto her face. She even saw out of her eye that Quinn was smiling the whole time.

After a couple of minutes Rachel was exhausted and laid down on the grass. She hadn't danced in a week and that made her body lose some of its stench. "So how long have you been dancing?" asked Quinn after a while and both of them just lying on the ground, looking up at the sky.

"My dads put me in dance class when I was three because I just had way too much energy and I liked it there. So I stayed and got better and better. Most people think that I'm crazy because I dance like all day long and don't do any other things, but that's what I like to do and I always feel free so why give it up? Nobody ever understood me before but you are different." Rachel smiled at her. "I like that about you."

Over at the picnic blanket Brittany and Santana were having their own conversation."Did you see Quinn?" Britt asked after Quinn and Rachel were long gone.

"Of course I saw it, but you know what happened at the beginning and I don't want to have the same thing happening again. So we will just hope that she will try and eat more as the time goes on." Santana answered and looked up at the Sky thinking about the memories from her first week working here.

"Come on Santana everybody makes mistakes you can't blame yourself for that all the time," said Brittany after Santana's face didn't move for a while

"But it was my fault, everybody knew that." Santana said with a slightly dropped face of shame.

Brittany thought for a while before she answered her again. "And you didn't see any of the new people that work here making mistakes? Everybody does them because nobody is perfect." Brittany leaned over and gave her a quick, sweet peck on the lip "Come on we have to get this stuff into the basket again and then bring the girls up to their rooms."

With that Santana got up without saying anything and helped Brittany pack all the things again. They both walked hand-in-hand to Rachel and Quinn. The two were still lying in the grass watching the clouds on the sky moving over them. Everything was peaceful right now, but soon the work week would start up and things would begin to get a little harder.

* * *

**Hello since it is my Birthday today and i didnt update in a long time I thought I would at least give you a present :) I hope you liked it.**


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